Trader bribes Police to drop court case against him

A Trader and a Driver have been remanded into custody by a Circuit Court in Accra, for multiple offences.

The Accused persons are Mathias Agbo, a trader and Emmanuel Abban, a driver.

Mathias Agbo, who is the first Accused was charged with two counts of possessing Indian Hemp without lawful authority and giving bribe in the sum of GHÈ»1,900.00 to a Police Officer to influence him to withdraw an offence the first Accused had committed (Possession of Narcotic Drugs).

The second Accused, Emmanuel Abban on the other hand was charged with one count of aiding and abetting the first Accused to commit crime to wit, Possession of Narcotic drugs. The two Accused persons in their preliminary statements before the presiding judge, His Honour, Aboagye Tandoh in court, denied the aforementioned charges leveled against them by the police.

The Prosecution presented the GHÈ»1,900.00 and the alleged Indian Hemp as exhibits (evidence) to the court.

The court accordingly remanded the Accused persons into custody to reappear on Thursday, the 25th of February, 2016.

Background to the Case

Hours earlier, the Prosecutor, Chief Superintendent Duuti Tuaruka told the court that on the 2nd of February, 2016, at about 1:30pm, at Old Fadama, a Police Patrol Team led by Chief Inspector Lydia Lamptey, on their usual patrol duties spotted a taxi cab with registration number GW 5122-12 driven by the second Accused, Emmanuel Abban with three passengers on board.

The Police Officer said that on reaching Old Fadama in Accra, the patrol team stopped the taxi and conducted an on the spot search, a box containing eighty-three (83) compressed brown wrapped parcels containing dried leaves suspected to be Indian Hemp was found.

The Prosecution further stated that sensing trouble, two of the occupants of the taxi escaped and the first and the second Accused persons were arrested. ‘The first Accused person, Mathias Agbo offered the Police a cash sum of GHÈ»1,900.00. Efforts are being made to get the other two Accused persons who are on the run (at large) arrested’, Chief Superintendent Duuti informed the court, adding that the exhibit (alleged to be Indian Hemp) has been forwarded to the Crime Laboratory of the Ghana Police Service for examination, stating that the case is still under investigation.